SPEECH 

,^1 



OF 



.u 



HON. LAWEENCE O'B: BEANCH, 



OF NORTH CAROLINA, 



ON 




<^^.3 



THE PHESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 



DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JULY 24, 185®. 



WAgHiNGTON : 

MINTED AT THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE Or*f ICE. 

1856. 



rk '^ 



THE PEESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 



The House being in the Committee of the Whole on the 
Slate of tlie Union, 

Mr. BRANCH said: 

Mr. Chairman: A great and vital contest has 
cmKimenced, and is now raging before tiie people 
of this country. If we estimate its importance 
by the magnitude of the results to flow from it, 
such a one has not, in my opinion, occurred 
since the establishment of the Government. The 
portentous flag of Black Republicanism has been 
raised, and around it have rallied not only the 
fanatical and political Abolitionists who profess- 
edly aim at the total abolition of negro slavery 
everywhere, but also a body of men far more 
dangerous, who would reach the same result by 
rendering odious and proscribing the slaveholder, 
and limiting the influence and checking thegrowth 
of those States in which negro slavery exists. 
Under the folds of this flag are found those who 
would refuse equal privileges to the citizens of 
the different sections of the Confederacy, and who 
seek to destroy the equality of the States of the 
Union. The party formed of such materials, and 
aiming at such objects, is, of course, and must 
always remain, strictly sectional in its organiza- 
tion. It has no existence out of the non-slave- 
holding States. But as those States have a large 
majority of Congress, and of the electoral college, 
its success in getting entire control of the Govern- 
ment is not at all impossible, nor, under the state 
of things now existing, at all improbable. I am 
no disunionist, nor alarmist. Nor is Mr. Fill- 
more. But he has warned us against the election 
of Fremont, and tells us that one of the conse- 
quences must be a dissolution of the Union. 

Mr. A. K. MARSHALL. T think the gentle- 
man from North Carolina does not correctly state 
Mr. Fillmore's position. He says that, if Mr. 
Fremont carries out the pohcy of appointing none 
but northern men to his Cabinet, it would cause a 
dissolution of the Union. 

Mr. BRANCH. My friend from Kentucky is 
correct as far as he goes. But Mr. Fillmore says 
Mr. Fremont would necessarily take all his high 



oflicers from the North, and that such a course 
would dissolve the Union. I understand him to 
intimate very distinctly that the South ought not 
to remain in the Union under such circumstances. 
Against such a party, openly avowing such a 
purpose, the friends of the Union and the Con- 
stitution should be indissolubly united. Certainly 
nothing less than the arrant folly of the mad- 
man could produce division in the minority sec- 
tion at such a crisis. The noble and patriotic 
citizen of the North, who, scorning the dema- 
gogue cry of " slaveocracy " and "southern 
domination," stands upon the Constitution and 
fights for the Union, regardless of sections, en- 
counters prejudices which demagogues excite 
against him. fie maintains a cause which the 
ignorant and uninformed in his own section have 
been taught to believe hostile to their own inter- 
ests. Ignorance, malice, and fanaticism taunt 
him as a doughface and a traitor. He withstands 
it all, because he is conscious of right, and fear- 
less of consequences. But when he finds him- 
self vilified at the North, and unsupported at the 
South — when he sees a powerful party organized 
in his own section, for the avowed purpose of 
giving that section preeminence over the South, 
and its citizens preference over the citizens of the 
South; and when he sees a large party at the 
South refusing to cooperate with him to defeat 
that party, because he cannot, consistendy with 
the principles on which he has planted himself, 
advocate a discrimination between the foreign- 
born and native-born citizen, he may falter in his 
efforts. When he sees a large part of the South 
advocating a discrimination between the citizens 
of the country, therein differing from the Black 
Republicans only as to the class against whom 
the principle is applied, may he not commence to 
inquire whether our aims are more justifiable and 
constitutional, in this respect, than those of the 
Black Republicans ? We have slaves to perforna 
our labor, and no foreigners. The North has no 
slaves, and its labor is performed by foreigners. 
The North may claim that the Con'vtituticn guar- 
anties to its foreign labor as much as it guarauUes 



to us our slave labor; and the foreign laborer 
being as indispensabio to the North aa the slave 
is to the South, the nortliern statesman may ] 
refuse to defend us from unjust discriniinaiion 
so Ions: as we insist on a discrimination against, 
himself and his own section. By such a course 1 
of reasonina:, a ]nr^i' number of voters at the j 
Nortli, whi) would otherwise act with us, may 
be kept from the polls, or driven into the ranks 
of the Hlaek Republicans; whilst another Iart::e 
number of intellisjeiit and inlhuntial men, dis- 
gusted or alarmed at the folly and ingratitude j 
under the influence of which we refuse, on ac- 1 
count of minor questions, to give an effective j 
support to the only parly which has a national 
ori;anization,anil holds out any hope of defeating . 
Black Uepubiicunism, will stand aloof from the ', 
contest. ! 

The continuance of Mr. Fillmore on the list of; 
candidates is dividing the friends of the Consti- : 
tution and the Union. Without a possibility of 
success, he has not friends enough in some of ; 
the norihern States to make it worth while to run | 
an electoral ticket in his favor. Without a reason- : 
able prospect of carrying one single electoral vote, [ 
he yet has friends enough in many of those States ] 
to cancel the Democratic ni;!Jorities. The whole 
country knows that the great bulk of the Know 
Kothings North have, through their convention, 
nominated Fremont, and tliat the small portion 
of the party v,-ho arc supporting Mr. Fillmore I 
have, under all circumstances, refused to sup]5ort 
that gentleman. Hence, it is a well-known fact, 
that two thirds of Mr. Fillmore's friends at tiie 
North, if compelled to choose between Mr. Buch- 
anan and Mr. Fremont, would vote for the : 
former. I 

The joy of the Black Ilepublicans at the con- ' 
tinuance of Mr. Fillmore in the field is not re- 
strained even by obvious considemtions of pru- 
dence and policy. As showing how they chuckle 
over our divisions, and what effect in th(;ir favor 
they expect from it, 1 present extracts from the i 
two leauing papers of that parly: I 

" Such is tlio progmiiiini," of the next prnsideiitial cam- ' 
pai^ii ; nnd we are In-e lo onnlcss iliat we are nin^l tli;iiik- 
fiil \o .Mr. Fillmore and his friends for haviiiij prnijuci'd this 
result, or course, iiolKxIy will vote for Mr. l'"illniore who 
would not, in the existiiigr staic of alihirs, liave voled for j 
tlie Uemocraile instead of the Kepubiican ticket; and, I 
Ihcrefon;, it necessarily follows, that the third party will 
draw votes only from the D(!mocratie ticket. Tlie only 
question of principle involved in the next contest is the 
extension of shivery, by the direct legislation of Congress, 
into territory now lice ihronsjh the repeal of ilie Missouri 
c(inipronii-e. niaile in pood laiiii in J»-20, and rcsUluncc to 
that act of bad faith. i 

•'Oi' course, with three licket.s in the field, tlie triumph ' 
of llio<e who oiipo.se slavery cttension by the (.'encral (Jov- 
iTnini-iil— opiK.fe the violation of plighted faith and the 
rcviv.-U of slavery ajiitalion— and insi.-t upon the rijjhl of the 
jM-ople. whcthi-r of the North or the .-^oiitli, lo re;;ulatc 
Uieir internal afluiiK losuit llieinselv('s without molestation 
from any source whatever— is placed beyond all i|aestioii. 

'•We fe. I a.ssured, that in the approachinK presldenual 
C0Mle«i. wi'. the a;;fjrieved parly ol' the North, will tri 
amph.'" — A>i/i York Couyicr and Emiuirer, MurclfJi>, 1 ».'>(). 

*' The friends of fre« Kansas would have a hard baule 
llli« iimuiuii It their adversaries were united ; liut with the 
noinnaUon of Fillmore and IJone^on at I'hiladelphia, anil 
of men iipially oli^-erpiidus to slavery at Cincinnati, we 
oil(lit to lie ahle to irhimph on the direct vote of the people. 
Blioiild tie- t illinore divrsion throw the electoral vote of 
|'enn-\ . . ni,. ond .Nuw Jersey n, the Democratic ticket, we 
must l.iK. ..or ehaiite m the lli.use, where we have so 
recently earned the Hpoiiker, and where we should start 
wtlh tJlc vote of thirteen RJtateit certain, und a tic in three 



or four others, f think our chance there would be woitii 
that of both the opposing parlies togi'ther. 

" 'I'he nominations just made ought to unite the North 
on the Kepubiican platform, while dividing the South 
belween the two pro-slavery parlies." — A'ew York Tribune 
o/ March 1, 1S56. 

The friends of Mr. Fillmore at the South should 
take warning; and now, before the healed feelings 
of partisans have supplanted the' .''ober calculations 
of judgment, they should di;termine that no re- 
membrance of former contests with the Demo- 
cratic party shall prevent them from casting their 
votes for Mr. Buchanan, and appealing to their 
associates at the North to do likewise. 

Itis obviou.si, Mr. Chairman, that some excuse 
is necessary for dividing the South at this fearful 
juncture. Unable to deny the palpable facts to 
which I have alluded; compelled to admit that 
the Democratic party is the only parly that pos- 
sesses strength in every Stale of the Union, and 
can hold out any hope of unitinir the patriotism 
of the whole country against the supporters of 
Fremont; and compelled, too, to admit the sound- 
ness of the principles for which the Democratic 
parly is contending, at least so far as the ques- 
tions connected with slavery are concerned, the 
southern supporters of Mr. Fillmore are driven 
to rely on a few frivolous charges against Mr. 
Buchanan, personally, lo furnish an excuse for 
their extraordinary conduct. I propose todevole 
a few moments, and but a few moments, to their 
examination. 

1. It is said that, forty-four years ago, he de- 
clared that if he had a drop of Democratic blood 
in his veins he would let it out. It is strange that 
persons, who have themselves always displayed 
such mortal aversion to Democratic blood, and 
everything else Democratic, should urge such a 
charge against Mr. Buchanan. But it is not true 
that he ever made such a declaration. Mr. Bufth- 
anan himself, many years ago, publicly, in the 
newspapers, pronounced it false; and a large 
number of his neighbors, over their signatures, 
also pronounced it false. Not a parlicle of proof 
has ever been adduced lo establish its truth. 

2. It is said he was a Federalist. Heshouldered 
his musket, as a ]irivate, and marched lo Balti- 
more, to defend it against the British. If he was 
a Federalist, it is a pity there were not more 
Federalists of the same sort in the country. 

3. It is said that he approved certain resolu- 
tions passed by a public meeting in Lancaster, 
in 1819, disapproving of slavery in the Territo- 
ries. That was thirty-seven j-ears ago. Mr. 
Buchanan may have been at the meeting; he may 
have been on the committee, and still not have 
approved the resolutions, as every one knows 
who has been in the haiiit of attending political 
meetings. Few of us would like to be held 
responsible for all that was said and done at all 
the public meetings we have ever attended. But, 
admitting that he did then ajiprove them, he has 
been in public life continuously since that time. 
He has been a member of Congress almost con- 
stantly since the slavery agitation connnenced, 
and not a single vole has he ever given hostile to 
southern institutions. Throughout all that agita- 
tion he has uniformly sustained the rights of the 
slaveholding States, and commanded the confi- 
dence of the pur(;st slalcsmen of the South. For 
more than thirty years he has been conspicuously 
before ihc^country as a public officer, having 



Toted in Congress on almost every question that ' 
has ever arisen in resrard to the institution of 
slavery, and never, until it beca«ne necessary for 
the Know Nothings of the South to frame an 
excuse for dividing the South, did any southern 
man charge him with being unsound on the 
slavery question. ' 

If further proof were needed of the high posi- 
tion he occupies on this question, it will be found 
in his letter to the Democratic State convention 
of Pennsylvania, written shortly before his nom- 
ination, and in his letter accepting the nomina- 
tion for the Presidency, and pledging himself to 
carry out the principles set forth in the Demo- 
cratic platform. 

The Lancaster resolutions date back thirty- 
seven years, whilst Mr. Buchanan was a mere 
youth, and before the slavery agitation had as- 
sumed anything like its present form. In 1838, 
nearly twenty years afterwards, when in the 
prime of life, and a candidate for Congress, and 
when the abolition societies at the North were at 
the very height of their treasonable efforts against 
the South, Mr. Fillmore deliberately wrote as 
follows to an abolition society: 

Buffalo, October 17, 1838. 

Sir: Your communication of tlie 1.5tt) instant, as chair- 
man of a committee appointed by " The Anii Slacerij So- 
ciety of the coun'y of Erie," lias just come to hand. You 
solicit my answer to the following interrogatories: 

1. Do you believe that petitions to (Congress on the sub- 
ject of slavery and the slave trade ought to be received, 
read, and respectfully considered by the representatives of 
the people ? 

2. Are you opposed to the annexation of Te.\as to this 
Union, under any circumstances, so long as slaves arc held 
therein ? 

3. Arc \'ou in favor of Congress exercising all the consti- 
tutional power it possesses to abolish tlie internal slave trade 
between the States.' 

4. Are you in favor of immediate legislation for tlie abo- 
lition of slavery in the District of Columbia .' 

I am much engaged, and have no time to enter into an 
argument, or to explain at length my reasons for my opin- 
ion. I shall therefore content myself, for the present, by 
answering all your interrogatories in the afflrmatire, and 
leave for some future occasion a more extended discussion 
on the subject. MILLARD FILLMORE. 

He was elected to Congress, and throughout 
his whole career there uniformly voted with 
Giddings, Sla.de, Adams, and the worst enemies 
of the iSouth. 

Whilst Mr. Fillmorewas thus cordially endors- 
ing the doctrines of the extreme Abolitionists, and, 
as a member of Congress, was on all occasions 
voting with Adams, Giddings, and Slade, Mr. 
Buchanan, both in Congress and at Kome in the 
midst of his constituents, was contending against 
these doctrines, and in favor of the constitutional 
rights of the South. On the 18th of August, 1838, 
Mr. Buchanan addressed .his fellow-citizens at 
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on the political cjues- 
tions in issue in tlie State elections then pending. 
It will be observed that this speech was almost 
cotemporaneons with Mr. Fillmore's Erie letter: 
and the contrast is most striking between the 
broad and comprehensive views of the statesman, 
and the narrow and illiberal dogmas of the aboli- 
tion candidate for Congress. The whole speech 
will be found in Niles's Register, volume 55, page 
90. Mr. Buchanan said: 

" There was one subject of vital importance to the peace 
and prosperity of the Union, which had not occupied much 
of the attention of the former speakers, and therefore he 
would make a few remarks upon it. He referred to aboli- 



tion. Was Joseph Ritner (then running for Governor) an 
Abolitiouist? 1'liis was a mo.-t ii.lcresting question. If he 
was, then no friend to the existence of our glorious Union 
ouglit to vote in lavi)r of his election as Governor." * * 

" lieforo the spirit of abolitioni.-m had been conjured np 
from its dark abode by political fanatics and hot-headed 
enthusiasts, all was comparatively peaceful and tranquil in. 
the southern States. Slavery had been most unfortunately 
introduced into these States by our Rritlsh forefathers. It 
was there at the adoption of the Federal Constitution; and 
this Constitution ilid Jiot merely leave it there, but expressly 
guarantied to the slavi;holding States their property in 
slaves, and the exclusive dominion over the question of 
slavery within their respective borders. Such is the clear 
language of the Constitution itself, and such was the coti- 
struction the first Congress placed upon it. AVithoiit this 
solemn constitutional compact the southern States would 
never have been parties to the Union ; and the blessings 
and benefits which it has conferred, and will confer, not 
only upon our own country, but the whole human race, 
would never have been realized, 'i'hose in the free States 
who determine to violate this compact must determine to 
dissolve the Union. The one is the necessary consequence 
of the other." ******** 

"At the session of 1835-'3G, (the Congress immediately 
preceding Mr. Fillmore's Erie letter,) the question of aboli- 
tion had occupied much of the time and attention of Con- 
gress. It had been discussed in every possible aspect. 
Petitions for the abolition of slavery in the District of Colum- 
bia, got up and circulated by the anti-slavery societies, 
poured into Congress from the free States. This was the 
only mode in which the Abolitionists could agitate the ques- 
tion in Congress, because no fanatic, to Mr. B.'s knowl- 
edge, had been so mad as to contend that Congress had any 
power over slavery within the slave States themselves. 
Petitions to abolish slavery in tlie District of Columbia 
formed part of the grand scheme of agitation by which 
the Abolitionists expected to accomplisli their purposes. 
Throughout the spring, summer, and autumn of 1835, a 
combined attempt was made upon the southern States, not 
only by agitation in the Nortli, but by scattering over Uie 
Soiith, through the post office, and by traveling agents, the 
vilest publications and pictorial representations. He had 
himself seen many of them. Their natural eflect was to 
pio'duce dissatisfaction and revolt among the slaves, and to 
incite their wild passions to vengeance." 

He then goes on to depict the horrors of ser- 
vile insurrection, and to denounce the Abolition- 
ists: 

"Under the influence of the feelings excited by these 
causes, the southern members of Congress reached Wash- 
iimton in December, 1835. Many of them, with sorrow 
and anguish of heart, declared that if the southern States 
could not remain in the Union without having their do- 
nie?tic peace continually disturbed by the attempts of the 
Abolitionists, the great law of self preservation would com- 
pel them to separate from the North. Immediately after 
the commencement of the session, and throughout its con- 
tinuance, the Abolitionists, intent upon their object, sent 
immense number of petitions to Congress for the abolition 
of slavery in the District of Columbia, couched in lan- 
guage calculated to exasperate the southern members." ( It 
was under these circumstances that Mr. Fillmore wrote his 
Erie letter.) '• What did they ask .' That in the District, 
ten miles square, ceded to Congress by two slaveholding 
States, and surrounded by them, slavery should be abol- 
ished." 

He then goes on to denounce in strong lan- 
guage the abolition of slavery in the District of 
ij Columbia, and concludes this branch of the sub- 
ject, as follows: 

" Impelled by these motives, the Senate, upon his mo- 
tion, after the petitions had been received, rejected the 
prayer of the petitioners by a vote of thirty four to six, and 
refused to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia." * 
* * "Thus stood the question on the 4th of July, 1836, 
when Copgress adjourned. The members of Congress 
from the slaveholding States and their constituents had a 
riiht to expect peace. The qiiestiim had been fully dis- 
cussed, and deliberately decided by overwhelming majori- 
ties, and the South had reason to hope that the minority 
would acquiesce, at least for a season, in the will of a ma- 
jority." 

But Mr. Fillmore and the abolition societies at 
the North would not allow peace and quiet to the 



6 



South, but persisted in an agitation of the ques- 1' 
tion which has icpontedly hroiijrlit tho Union to |! 
the l-riiik of ilt\stiuction. WhiTc is tiie fticiid ofj 
Mr. Fillmore who will ever a^nin charire Mr. 
Buchnnnii with unsomidni'.ss on this qiustion .' | 
4. It is said Mr. Buchanan i.s favoralde to filli- t 
bustcring; and the ijianifisto of the Ostend con- jl 
ference is cited as proviiiij that lio favors attempts 
to acquire the Island of Cuba by that means. Mr. y 
Buchanan's letter accepting tin; nomination ut- 
terly refutes any such charge. In it he says: 

" :=lioul(i I tie plnocd in llie exfcutive rh.iir, I Ktiall use 
my bi'sl exiTlions lo ciillivale peace and fric^nilsliip with 
all naliiiii<. iM-lifvini: iliis to he our Itighcst policy as well 
as our most nnpi-ralivc duty." 

From a statesman of his conservative eharacler, 
whose experience in the conduct of our foreign 
affairs is unequaled, and whose prudence is pro- 
verl)ial, no such declaration would be needed to 
satisfy the country that in his hands its peace 
and honor would be equally safe. 

Tlie manifesto of the Ostend conference de- 
clared that the possession of tlie Island of Cuba 
was of great importance to the commerce and the 
security of this country; that our Government 
ought to acquire it by purchase, if possible, and 
could afioid to give for it a very high price; iliat 
if Spain should refuse to sell it to us, it ought lo 
become the fixed policy of this Government, that 
in no event would we permit it to pass into the 
hands of a maritime Power, commanding, as it 
does, the whole of our southern coasts on the 
Atlantic and the Gulf, and shutting up the whole 
of our Gulf Slates, including the mouth of the 
Mississippi, in the event of war between us and 
the PnWer ])ossessing it. Such were the senti- 
ments I avowed to my own constituents. i\nd 1 
go further and say, iliat if Spain should attempt 
to pursue such a course with the island as to 
render it a dangerous neighbor lo us, the great 
law of self-preservation would imperatively de- 
mand of us to interpose and prevent it. If there 
is a party in this country entertaining diflerent 
sentiments, I would like to hear them avowed. 

AVhilst IMr. Fillmore was President, the best 
appointed and most formidable fillibustering ex- 

fiedition that was ever fitted out from our shores 
eft the Mississippi river almo.st, if not quite, 
without opposition from the Government. It was 
that l.-d by Lopez for the conquest of the Island 
of Cuba. 1 do not censure Mr. Fillmore for it. 
He no doubt did all he fell juslifit d in doing to 
arrest it. He issued Jiis proclamation warning the 
adventurers that they need not expect the aid of 
their Government ifihcy nn.t thi- fate they might 
reasonably expeci. That was doing no more than 
it was strictly his duly lo do, both as a faithful 
President and n bem.'volent individual. But the 
then editor of the Union, Andnw J. Donelson, 
now ihe candidate for Vice President on the 
ticket with Mr. Fillmore, thought otherwise, and 
day after day, thnuigh the columns of the 
Uni.in, denounced Mr. Fillnior.; for "truckling 
•ubsi rvieney" to Spain, and for piu-iilanimously 
abandoning American citizens to Spanish ven- 
geance. Indeed, of all the violent abusi' heaped 
on Mr. Fillmore by Mr. Donelsun, ihrough tfie 
Union, none was njore iin<pialified and more bitter 
than that r.inndid on Mr. Fillmore's altemj>t to 
8Uj>i")res8 filhliusiering. 
6. It is charged thai in his speech on the inde- 1 



pendent Treasury, Mr. Buchanan contended that 
ten cents per day was sufficient wages for a labor- 
ing man. It is a sufficient reply to this to say, 
that no such thing is in that or any other speech 
of Mr. Buchanan; and his enemies, having been 
repeatedly challenged to point it out, have not 
been able to do so. The whole basis of the charge 
is that he advocated the independent Treasury. 
The enemies of that UK.asure contended that it 
would reduce the wages of labor; Mr. Buchanan 
denied it. The measure has been the law of the 
land for ten years, and experience has shown that 
Mr. Buchanan was correct. The wages of labor 
and prices of produce have never been so high, 
nor the country so exempt from disastrous com- 
mercial revulsions, as they have been under the 
operation of the independent Treasury. 

6. The charge of bargain and intrigue against 
Mr. Clay. Mr. Clay, "in his lifetime, and his 
friends, including Prentice, his biographer, hav- 
ing exonerated Mr. Buchanan from all that was 
improper in that matter, it is too late to found on 
it a new charge, at least without some new evi- 
dence. 

These frivolous charges are only intended, as I 
remarked just now, to excuse the Know Nothings 
for dividing the South, and lo draw oil' public at- 
tention at the South from exposure brought upon 
the Know Nothing party by the proceedings of 
this Congress, and the verification of every charge 
made by us against it last summer. 

But 1 do not intend to be ]daced on the defens- 
ive, nor, by any such clatter of small-arms, to 
be drawn off from the exposure of the misdeeds 
of " the order" of this Congress. Let us briefly 
trace its origin and history. 

In the presidential election of 1852, the friends 
of General Scott made the most des]ierate efforts 
to secure the votes of the Roman Catholic and 
foreign-born population of the country. General 
Scott himself wrote letters, and made speeches 
throughout that portion of the country in which 
they are numerous, abounding in fulsome flattery 
and disgusting adulation of those classes, and 
afiected a fondness for " the rich Irish brogiie" 
and " sweet German accent," which no pelting 
storm nor howling wind could ever prevent him 
from distinguishing from the coarse and vulgar 
English of the native-born American. In a 
speech at Cleveland he said: 

'■ Fellow citizens— when 1 say lellow-eiti/.ens I mean 
nalivo and adopted cili/.eiis as well as all who intend 
to bccoMie citizens of this ifieat and "jlorious country— 
F Uiank you lor the eniliusiastio ri'cepiion yon have given 
nie. [Cheers.] But there is one thing I resret ui visiting 
tliis heaulil'ul city, and thai is. the rain. 1 was pained thai, 
while 1 was eonilbrtably sheltered in a coverid carriage, 
vou should have heen e.'iposed to rain and inuil. 

" Fellow citizens, I have ihonaht a man <'onld hardly call 
liini.self a cilizenof this great country wilhonl passing' over 
Ihe^ie great lakes, of which this is ju.-tly eelehiated as one 
of the most heautinil of the whole West. [• Vou are wel- 
come here,' IVoni an irishman] I hear that rich lirogiie-— 
I love to hear it ; it makes me ri'memher imhle deeds ot 
Irislimen, many of whom 1 have led lo bailie and to vic- 
tory. [(ire.it cheering. J"' 

If in his ardor he did not actually vituperate 
the natives of the country, their exploits as sol- 
diers, their virtues as citizens, and the simple 
vigor of their languaije, were overlooked and de- 
spised, and the Irishman or German who had 
'* passed over tiiese gjrat lakes" was, inhisesti- 
maiion, a better citizen than a native of my State 
who had never seen them. 



In that celebrated letter in which he accepted 
the nomination, " with the resolutions annexed," 
he declared that, if elected to the Presidency, he 
would favor such a change in the naturalization 
laws as would " give to all foreigners the right of 
citizenship who shall faithfully serve, in time of 
war, one year on board of our public ships or in 
our land forces," thus proposing to give to a for- 
eigner, who had served one year in the Mediter- 
ranean, or on the coast of Africa, or in Mexico, 
who had never been in this country, nor attended 
an election, and who of course had no opportu- 
nity to learn anything of our laws and customs, 
the full rights of citizenship. He proposed to 
let such a foreigner vote the very first day his 
foot ever trod on American soil. Nine tenths of 
those who are now so clamorous for " Americans 
to rule America" were the warm friends of Gen- 
eral Scott, defended this letter from the attacks 
of the Democrats, and gave to the people as 
many assurances of his soundness as they now 
ffive of the sounSness of Mr. Fillmore. So much 
for the foreigners in 1852. 

The Roman Catholics were equally courted. 
One of the reasons urged by those who are now 
Know Nothings against the election of General 
Pierce was, that the State in which he lived (New 
Hampshire) excluded them from office. The 
Louisville Journal, then one of the leading Scott 
papers, and now one of the leading Know Nothing 
organs, said: 

•'They (the American people) will not consent that the 
iVew Hampshire Democracy, who recently voted, by an 
overwhelrain? majority, in favor of Catholic disability to 
hold office, shall have the honor to give a President to the 
nation. They would greatly prefer that this honor shall 
be accorded to some State not disgraced by such, abominable 
•li^otry.'' 

General Pierce's friends proved that he was op- 
posed to excluding Roman Catholics from office 
on account of their religion, and that he had done 
all he could to get the disabiUty removed; there- 
upon the same editor said: 

" If that was all that General Pierce could say or do 
towards relieving New Hampshire of a disgrace that causes 
her to be regarded with scorn by every liberal-minded man in 
the United States and in the world, we ask if he is fit to be 
President?" 

The constitution of North Carolina had, at one 
lime, like that of New Hampshire, contained a 
clause excluding Catholics from holding office. 
1 find in the National Intelligencer of 4th Septem- 
ber, 1852, a defense of Governor Graham, the 
candidate for Vice President, against what was 
then considered by his friends a most heinous 
charge — a suspicion that he was in favor of ex- 
cJuding Catholic* from office. I read from it as 
follows: 

" GovKRNOR GiiAHAM AND Reugious Tests.— Several 
of the Democratic presses, perceiving that their candidate 
for the Presidency is likely to be prejudiced by the odious 
religious test in the constitution of New Hampshire, aflect 
to believe that Governor Graham, the Whig candidate for 
Vice President, is not as tolerant as he should be, and one 
of them has even gone so far as to declare that Mr. Graham 
was opposed to the reform in the constitution of North 
Carolina, by which a similar restriction was abrogated." 
5- * * * " In an address to the people, dated June, 
ia33, while the election of Governor Graham was pending, 
they (his friends) declared that it was a ' disgrace to any 
free people to tyrannize over the consciences of others,' 
and pronounced the obnoxious provision ' an odious restric- 
tion upon conscience.'" 

The article quotes, in his further defense, an 



address signed by Governor Graham and others, 
dated January, 1834, as follows: 

"The thirty-second article of the constitution excludes 
from civil office all who may deny the truth of the Protestant 
religion. This has no practical efiect, for the plain reason 
that there is no tribunal established by the constitution to 
determine a man's faith. It is an odious badge of prejudice, 
which the enlightened liberality of the present day should 
scorn to wear. It is an unjust imputation against the 
Catholics of this State to attach to them any such disquali- 
fication. The patriotism, personal virtues, and ability, and 
the disinterested public services of a single individual in the 
State, brand with falsehood the idle fears that are implied 
by this paper restriction . How far it is consistent with the 
spirit of Protestantism itself— how far it is compatible with 
the bill of rights, which declares 'that all men have a nat- 
ural and inalienable right to worship God according to the 
dictates of their own conscience,' we leave to tliat bigotry 
which would perpetuate this stigma." 

Up to this period Catholics and foreigners were 
in high favor. In two years from that time we 
find these same persons swearing voters, on the 
Holy Bible, to exclude from all offices all Roman 
Catholics, and even those having Roman Cath- 
olic wives or parents; inflicting on the rebellious 
member who should vote for a Catholic, or con- 
tinue one in office under him, " cruel and unusual 
punishments," such as the Constitution forbids 
the courts to inflict, and such as no humane jury- 
man woald prescribe for a thief or a robber; post- 
ing him from council to council as a liar and a 
traitor, as a dangerous and outlawed runaway- 
negro would be posted from cross-road to cross- 
road ; demanding of every true and faithful 
"brother" to shun and despise him, and to use 
every possible effort to reduce him and his family 
i to beggary and starvation. The foreigners and 
Roman Catholics refused to take the bait held out 
to them, and, as was alleged by General Scott's 
friends, generally voted for General Pierce — thus 
proving that, as a class, they are not so easily 
duped by politicians and misled by demagogues 
as the Know Nothings allege. 

Having wooed warmly. General Scott's friends 
hated intensely the classes who had thus, inno- 
cently on their part, been made the object of so 
much lust. The same individuals who had endeav- 
ored, two years before, to bring about such a 
change in the naturahzation law as to permit a 
foreigner to be naturalized on one year's service 
in the Army or Navy, proposed, in 1854, that no 
foreigner should ever be permitted to vote. And 
those who, in 1852, had contended that General 
Pierce ought not to be elected President, because 
his State retained in its constitution a clause 
excluding Catholics from office, endeavored, in 
1854, with just as much appearance of sincerity, 
to convince the people that to permit Catholics 
to hold office was in effect to place the country 
I under the dominion of the Pope of Rome. 

Such was the origin of the party; and there is 
too much reason to believe that it arose more 
from spite and disappointment, than from solici- 
tude about our institutions or our religion. 

The party spi-ang up in the North just pre- 
vious to the passage of the Kansas and Nebraska 
bill in May, 1854. In the midst of the excite- 
ment produced by the passage of that bill, the 
elections for members of the present House took 
place; and availing itself thereof, it defeated the 
Democratic party in every northern State. Of 
the one hundred and forty-three members of this 
House from the North, ninety-one were elected 
as Know Nothings; and of these ninety-one. 



aetnUy-Jive voted for Mr. Banks, also a Know 
Nothini:, for Speaker. Every Black Republican 
•voted with them; not a single Democrat voted 
for him. A list of the names having been read 
on this floor in April last, by my friend from 
Tennessee, [Mr. Smith,] and properly corrected, 
I will append it lo mv printed speech as nulhentic. 

On the 26th January, the gentleman from In- 
diana, [Mr. Diss,] now at the head of the Fill- 
more electoral ticket in that State, introduced into 
this House the following resolution, which, it 
will be observed, goes further than the Black 
Republican platform: 

»• Resolved, Tlinl said restriction (the Missouri compro- 
mise) oujht to Ik- rc'storod, as an act of justiot" to all the 
people of the I'liiteil States, as a proper vindication of the 
WiMloin, patriotism, and plighted honor of the great states- 
Dieu who imposed it. and ;is a necessary and certain means 
of leviving that concord and harmony among the States of 
the American L'liion which are essential to the welfare of 
our people, and the perpetuity of our institutions." 

On this resolution, every Democrat in the 
House voted "No." Only three northern Know 
Nothings voted against it— eighty-eight of them, 
with all the Black Republicans, voting for it, or 
absent. 

On the bill to admit Kansas into the Union on 
the revolutionary Topeka constitution, got up by 
the Free-Soil party in that Territory, the vote 
was about the same. All the Black Republicans, 
and all the northern Know Nothings, except 
seven, voting for its admission; and all the Dem- 
ocrats, except one, voting against it. j 

It was known to well-informed persons at the ; 
South, at the time these individuals were elected 
to Congress, that they were Free-Soilers, and ; 
that on Free-Soil principles they had defeated j 
sound national Democrats. But the elections 
were pending in the South; and the fact was 
boldly and unblushingly denied by the Know j 
Nothings, in the full trust that the rottenness of 
their associates could not be exposed until it was | 
too late to affect our elections. I happen to have 
before me the North Carolina Star, the news- 

Saper organ of " the order" in my State, for 
larch 17, 1855, in which I find the following 
editorial: I 

"New Hampshire Election. — An election was held in I 
New Hampshire, on the lUth. for Governor, inenihers of the 
Legislature, Congress, &c., and, from the returns already 
received, there is no doubt of the entire success of the 
American party. 

" Of the members of the Legislature, the Know Nothings 
have elected one hundred and twenty three, the Democrats 
twenty-nine, and the Whi^r; three, so far as heard from. 
All the Know Nothing members of Congress arc said to be 
elected. Ileineinber this is Mr. Pierce's Slate, and may, 
therefore, be regarded as an abandonment of tlie linn of 
Pierce, Forney, Seward, &. Co. This American victory 
oeeurrcd on tin; fame day the Virginia American candidate 
wa* nominated. 'I'he former may be taken as a precursor 
of the renult of the latter." 

The members of this House whose election 
was thus greeted in a southern State, are among 
the most unwavering of the Free-Soil jnajority; 
and the next thing we heard of that glorious 
Know N(Hhing Legislature was, that it had eloct- 
•d Joii.M P. IIalk, and another like him, to the 
United States Senate. 

Such were the means resorted to to blind the 
people of the South lo the uppiilling dangers into 
whi<:h Know .N'othingi.sm was prcci|)ilating the 
country, and the: SdUh in particular. Is not the 
charge, made last bunnner, that the triumph of li 



Know Nothingism at the North was the triumph 

of Aboliticniisin, fully proven by every test vote 
yet taken in this House .' And " the end ia not 
yet." Day by day the country is being precip- 
itated towards revolution by the blind and frenzied 
Free-Soil fanaticism of tin; Know Nothing ma- 
jority of this House. Even now we are threat- 
ened with a consummation of the fell purpose to 
paralyze the Government of the country by re- 
fusing supplies to carry it on, unless the Dem- 
ocratic Senate and Democratic President will 
permit this House to dictat3 legislation incom- 
patible with the peace of the country, if not 
destructive of the Union. The gentleman from 
Indiana, [Mr. Dukn,] who stands at the head of 
the Fillmore electoral ticket of his Slate, openly 
proclaims that he will never agree to appropriate 
a dollar to carry on the Government, unless it is 
coupled witii the restoration of the Missouri 
restriction. It will not be forgotten how boldly 
it was denied last summer, and with what assur- 
ance it was declared by the initialed, that a third 
degree Know Nothing could not be an Aboli- 
tionist. 

"The order" having proved so potent a lever 
at the North for raising into power the broken- 
down politicians of a defeated parly, it was seized 
on at the South as a means of performing the 
same office for a large number of aspirants, who, 
under every other name, had been rejected by the 
people of that section. It came silently and se- 
cretly; and until long after its establishment, and 
its lodges had been organized in every county, 
and in almost every neighborhood, we were igno- 
rant of its existence among us. I, myself, at the 
moment it was achieving, and until long after it 
had achieved the exploits at the North which 
filled this House with Abolitionists, entertained 
no more suspicion of its existence in our midst 
than. I have at this moment that Massachusetts 
emigrant aid societies are established in the city 
of my residence. It not only came secretly, but 
it came under the guise of an association, no way 
interfering in politics, except to prevent a repeti- 
tion of the discreditable scenes to which I nave 
alluded, as having occurred in 1852. Its friends 
professed to eschew all offices and promotion for 
themselves; denounced " the wild hunt after of- 
fice, which characterizes the age," and bewailed 
" the purer days of the Republic, when office 
sought the man, and not man the office." Such 
professions of moderation and disinterestedness 
disarmed suspicion. Thousands joined it who 
withdrew on ascertaining that, whilst the pretext 
was to keep foreigners and Roman Catholics out 
of office, the real object was to keep out Demo- 
crats; and that whilst ostensibly declining till of- 
fices for themselves, their main t'undamental prin- 
ciple — the one which could never be; violated by 
" a brother" with impunity — wasa preference of 
themselves and one another, not only for every 
office, but for every employment in the country. 

The elections at the North had been carried on 
extreme Free-Soil principlLS, as I have shown. 
They had taken place in the fall of lb54. The 
elections at the South were to come on in the 
summer of 1855. The northern Know Nothings 
had had a " good lime of it" in 1854, running on 
an extreme Free-Soil phitform; and the southern 
Know Nothings clninicd, and had accorded to 
them, a platform that it waa thought would give 



9 



them an equally " good time of it" in 1855. As 
no elections were pending at the North, the thing 
was easily arranged; and in June, 1855, the Phil- 
adelphia convention passed a set of resolutions 
embracing, among others, the celebrated twelfth 
section. I, for one, made no issue on that 
twelfth section. I told the people that if it was 
the doctrine of the party, and the party would 
abide by it, and we could be so assured, they 
might be safely trusted, as far as the slavery 
question was concerned. But I told them it was 
not the doctrine of the party — that it was only 
put forth to aiiect the southern elections; and as 
soon as they were over it would be repealed, as 
it had already been repudiated by the whole 
northern wing of the party. That, like every- 
thing else militating against their success, was 
broadly and boldly contradicted. 

As soon as the southern elections were over, 
the newspaper organ of the party in this city 
commenced to agitate in favor of striking out the 
twelfth section. A feeble echo came from the 
county town of one of the most patriotic counties 
in the district I have the honor to represent. 
From every part of the country, in a few in- 
stances even in those portions of the South in 
which " an intensely American feeling" pre- 
vailed, the cry was taken up. The national 
Know Nothing council met at Philadelphia in 
February, 1856. The North demanded the re- 
peal. Mr. Sheets, of Indiana, said: 

" He would assure the South, that the twelfth section 
must be got rid of. He was willing to accept a compro- 
mise, but the section must be got rid of. He was willing to 
accept the Washington platibnn, for, if there was any- 
thing in it, it was so covered up with verbiage that a Presi- 
dent would be elected before the people would find out 
what it was all about. [Tumultuous laughter.] Three 
southern States had been carried on the twelfth section. 
Repeal it, and we will give you the entire North. [Ap- 
plause."] 

The twelfth section was stricken out against 
the unanimous vote of the South, and the "ver- 
biage" platform alluded to by Mr. Sheets was 
adopted. Thereupon a large portion of the south- 
ern members seceded from the convention. They 
say now the verbiage platform is as good as the 
twelfth section. Then why did they secede when it tons 
adopted? After Mr. Fillmore was nominated, or 
rather when they saw that by returning they could 
effect that much-desired object, they returned to 
the convention, and Mr. Fillmore v/as nominated. 
Then it became the turn of the northern members 
to bolt, and they went off, carrying very nearly 
all the presidential strength of the party. Such 
is the great and harmonious national party which 
is to save the Union from sectional strife. Unable 
to save itself from strife and dissolution through 
forty-eight hours — its whole history is but a long 
tale of bolters and seceders, sub-bolters and new 
seceders. It affects to be national, and claims that 
in its embrace the Union would be secure. Their 
embrace must be more powerful than the feeble 
and relaxed ligaments that bind together the 
members of their own body. As well might the 
unhappy parents who wrangle and fight at every 
meeting around the domestic board, claim that 
they are teaching their children fraternal harmony 
and concord. Their example is more potent for 
evil than their precepts for good. 

The northern members who bolted when Fill- 
more was nominated, after having been insulted 



by the Black Republican convention, and spurned 
from their doors, have tamely fallen into the ranks 
of Fremont, and will no doubt labor the harder 
for the kicks they have received. Hear what 
Ford, one of the leading seceders from the Phila- 
delphia Know Nothing convention, said when 
admitted to the Black Republican convention: 

" The American party has a great work to do, and that 
work is to spread Americanism and resist slavery. [Ap- 
plause.] The power of the Pope and domestic slavery are 
linked together, [applause,] and they have upon eartii but 
one mission— the extinction of human liberty. The power 
of oppression is the same, whether it be foreign or domestic. 
Can we not combine for the overthrow of these powers of 
darkness.' [Applause.] Is it possible that the people of the 
North cannot unite for the overthrow of that hydra-headed 
monster — Popery and slavery .' [Applause.] I tell you that 
we can. [Great applause.] I tell you we udll unite. [Up- 
roarious cheering.] Let us inscribe upon our banners, and 
proclaim it to the enemies of liberty everywhere, tliat the 
American party was the first which proclaimed the princi- 
ples of freedom — [tremendous applause] — the first, any- 
where, to hold Uiat it has inalienable rights, among which 
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The Whij; 
party has biddeu high for southern support. The Democrats 
have made bids for it. Every other party has bidden for it, 
till the American party sprang up. That party has said to 
the South, " We can no longer serve you :" and it was the 
first party that ever said this thing. [Applause.]" 

This is the same individual who figured con- 
spicuously in the Know Nothing convention of 
June, 1855, and who entertained and proclaimed 
there the same sentiments. After having been 
called to the confessional by Mr. Ford, in that 
convention, in regard to the repeal of the Mis- 
souri restriction, southern gentlemen returned 
home, and proclaimed to my people that the 
Know Nothing party of the North was sound, 
reliable, and patriotic. 

Thus ended, as j^redicted it would end, the at- 
tempt to form a national Know Nothing party. 
The Democratic party is the only party in the 
country standing upon the Constitution, and 
maintaining all its provisions, regardless of sec- 
tions or of sectional prejudices. It has existed 
since the foundation of the Government, main- 
taining itself through all the mutations of parties, 
of men, and of jjolitical issues. To say that it 
has occasionally done wrong is only to attribute 
to it the character which the Almighty has stamped 
on all his works. Nothing is infallible but the 
all-wise and unseen God. I claim not for the 
Democratic party any greater perfection than 
belongs to the fallible men of whom it is composed. 
But it has always maintained its strength equally 
over the whole Union, because its principles have 
always been tke principles of the Constitution, 
which was intended to guard, and protect, and 
foster the whole Uni.on alike. Whatever party 
undertakes to supplant it must necessarily become 
sectional, or one-ideaed, because it already occu- 
pies all the ground the Constitution affords for 
any party to stand on. The Know Nothing 
party has only suffered the fate of all its prede- 
cessors; and it has only met its fate more sud- 
denly and more disastrously than its predeces- 
sors, because it started as a sectional party, whilst 
all others have started as national, and have only 
become sectional after long years of defeat and 
disappointment. 

In the disastrous wreck at Philadelphia, in 
February last, the southern Know Nothings 
clung to the platform, (though they had bolted 
when it was adopted,) and floated oflf, with Mr. 
Fillmore for pilot, and a few northern friends of 



10 



Mr. Fillmore for companions in misfortune. I 
propose to exftmine tlial pliitform only so far as 
to see whillier it coniains niiyiliins: so important 
or so ur£;ent ns to roquire or jtistify the division 
of the Smith at this most fiarful Juncture. 

1. The first olii.xt is, that "Americans shall 
rule America." No oiu; ol>jects to that.; Amer- 
icans have always ruled America, ever since our 
forefathers declared their independence of the 
British crown. The great body of the people 
rule America. Thay are Americans, (not Know 
Nothings,) havin;^: American principles, Ameri- 
can ideas, and American interests. So long as the 
people rule, "Americans will rule America." If, 
nowever, it is meant to say, that a few foreign- 
born citizens holdins: office is incompatible with 
this great principle, I deny it. It is a great mis- 
take for a few office-holders or office-seekers to 
suppose that office-holders rule this country. If 
that was the case, the Government would have 
ceased to be the popular Government our fore- 
fathers establishcti, and it would be time for 
another revolution, i know that the little bust- 
ling politicians who are always after office, and 
who think that " thou shall not hold office "is the 
direst punishment that can be denounced against a 
citizen, flatter themselves that when they get into 
office they will rule the country. Bat theirs is a 
great error. The first appointment ever made by 
General Washington to his Cabinet was of Alexan- 
der Hamilton, a foreigner by birth, to be Secreta- 
ry of the Treasury. One of the first appointments 
hi made to the bench of the Supreme Court was 
of James Wilson, a foreigner by birth. The 
first appointment made by Mr. Jefferson was of 
Albert Gallatin to be Secretary of the Treasury. ; 
Every Administration from that day to this has | 
apj)0inled foreigners, and nobody has ever found J 
out, until Know Nothingism sprung up, that j 
Americans were not ruling America. If, when 
we were only five millions strong. General Wash- 
ington and Mr. Jefferson did not fear to appoint} 
them to the highest places, we need not fear to 
give them a few small offices, now that we are j 
twenty-five millions strong. ! 

3. The denial to all foreigners of the right to j 
be naturalized, as heretofore, in five years; or, 
what is a practical denial, the extension of the | 
l)robation period from five to twenty-one years. 

They do not propose to exclude foreigners from , 
the country, but to admit them, (the old platform ! 
promised tliem protection and a friendly welcome, I 
and Mr. Fillmore, in one of his rj^cent speeches, i 
has repeated its languge;) and when they get 
here, to place them on a level, socially and po- j 
litically, with free negroes. If foreigners are , 
pouring into the country as rapidly as the Know | 
Nothings represent, we would, under the opera- • 
lion of this rule, liave among us, in a few years, 
•evcral millions of white; men, of the same color 
with ourselves, possessing equal intelligence, 
equal pride, and equal sensibility with ourselves, 
and yt.i degraded by the laws to the level of the | 
free negro. Who would t(jli;rate a proposition I 
to admit among ns such a number of free negroes .' 1 
Not one. Yet it is jiroposed to make of all that' 
nutnber of foreigners the most bitter and implac- j 
a\Ac foes to us and our institutions. The free 
negro iH n<il our enemy, because, conscious of 
the inferiority of his race, he aspires not to equal- 
ity. But the unnaturalized foreigner would be a | 



most formidable and vindictive enemy, because 
smarting under the sting of degradation and 
insult. Civil war, riots, bloodshed in every 
shape, revolution, and social disorder, would 
necessarily follow from such a jiolicy. If they 
are not to be made citizens of, and amalgamated 
with us, keep them out of the country. Arm your 
forts, and man your ships, and drive them from 
our coasts as you would an army of invaders. 

3. The repeal of all laws making grants of lands 
to foreigners. 

I know of but one law making grants of lands 
to foreigners. That was an act passed 27lh of 
September, 1850, " to make donations to settlers 
on the public lands in Oregon." It was signed by 
Mr. Fillmore, as President, and irilhout his approval 
could not have become a law. It is as follows: 

" Sec. 4. Tliiit there shall be, and hereby is, granted to 
every white settler, or ocoiipaiit i)t"the public lands — Jlmcr- 
ican half-breed Indians included— abova the age of eighteen 
years, being a citizen of the United Statics, or hauin« made 
a declaration, according to law, of his intention to become a 
citizeyi, or who shall make such a declaration on or heforethe 
Ist day of December, 1651, now residing in said 'J'erritory, 
or who shall become a resident thereof on or before the 1st 
day of December, 1850, and who shall have resided upon, 
and cultivated the same, for four successive years, and 
shall otherwise conform to the provisions of this act, the 
quantity of one half-section, or three hundred and twenty 
acres, of land, if a single man ; and if a married man, or 
shall become married within one year from December 1, 
1S50, one section, or six hundred and forty acres— half to 
himself, and half to his wife." — Statutes at Large, vol. 9, 
p. 497. 

That law ought to be repealed. It> ought never 
to have been passed. I condemn Mr. Fillmore 
for approving it. But what is to be thought of a 
party that attributes to others as a crime the act 
of its own candidate.' 

4. The thirteenth article of the platform is a 
general indictment against the administration of 
General Pierce, containing many counts. 

The first count is for removing Know Nothings 
from office. Every Know Nothing is, or was, 
required, on initiation, to take an oath, as follows: 
" That you will not vote, nor give your influence, 
for any man for any office in the gift of the people, 
unless he be an Ainerican-born citizen, in favor 
of Americans ruling America;" that is, unless he 
is a Know Nothing, " nor if he be a Roman 
Catholic;" and "that you will support in all 
political matters, for all political offices, members 
of this order in preference to others." Having 
sworn to proscribe everybody differing from him 
in opinion, what right has tlic Know Nothing to 
complain if those difl'ering from him proscribo 
him? 

Again he swears: " That you will, in all polit- 
ical matters, so far as this Order is concerned, 
comply with the will of the majority, though it 
may conflict with your personal preferences;" 
that is, that he will submit himself implicitly to 
the will of "the Order," aiul vole as it direcls 
him. If the Know iXothing is right in proscribing 
the Roman Catholic, because he owes obedienca 
to the Pope in religious matters, the Democrats 
are certainly right to ])rnscribe the Know Noth- 
ing who has yielded up his freedom of judgment, 
and owes obedience to " the council" in political 
matters. 

Again he swears: "That if it maybe done 
legally, ycm will, when elected or appointed to 
any official sialion, conferring on you the ))owlt 
to do so, remove all foreigners, aliens, or Roman 



fe- 



ll 



Catholics (though they may be nativG-born) 
from office or place." 

Now, sir, I have never been a great admirer of 
the spoils system, as practiced by all parties to a 
certain extent, and by none to half the extent 
that the Know Nothings carry it — the practice of 
turning everybody dilTering from us out of office; 
but I do hold that no man who has taken this 
oath ought to be continued in office one moment, 
and allowed to turn out to starve, perhaps better 
men than himself, merely because they profess 
an unpopular religious faith, whilst perhaps he 
himself has no religion at all. 

The second count is on " a truckling subserv- 
iency to the stronger, and an insolent and cow- 
ardly bravado towards the weaker powers. " The 
language in which this count is couched must 
have been borrowed from Major Donelson's 
editorials against Mr. Fillmore, when the latter 
was making (no doubt honest) efforts to suppress 
fillibustering against the island of Cuba. " Truck- 
ling subserviency to Spanish despotism" was the 
sort of phrases in which he daily indulged. I 
may safely leave the brilliant conduct of our rela- 
tions with England, the unanimous commenda- 
tion bestowed on it by Senators, presses, and 
private individuals of all parties, and the suc- 
cessful and highly honorable settlement of our 
differences with that " stronger Power, "to refute 
the first charge. And I challenge the production 
of one instance of " insolent and cowardly bra- 
vado towards the weaker Powers." It is not 
true. Never have our foreign relations been on 
a better footing than they are at tliis moment. 

The third count is on the " reckless and unwise 
policy of the Administration," " as shown in the 
repeal of the Missouri compromise." For the 
sake of comparison, 1 here present the preamble 
to the Black Republican platform, of June 17, 
1856: 

"Mr. Wilmot then submitted the following report : 
" The Platform. — This convention of delegates, assem- 
bled in pursuance of a call addressed to the people of the 
United States, without regard to past political differences or 
divisions, who are opposed to the repeal of the Missouri 
compromise, to the policy of the present Administration, to 
the e.vteusion of slavery into free Territory, in favor of the 
admission of Kansas as a free State, of restoring the action 
of the Fedi'ral Government to the principles of Washing- 
ton and Jiffi^rson, and for the purpose of presenting candi- 
dates for the orticBs of President and Vice President," &c. 

What difference is there between the two ? 
The Know Nothing platform says it ought not to 
have been repealed, but says nothing about the 
restoration of it. The Black Republican says it 
ought not to have been repealed, and says nothing 
about its restoration. This is the great and vital 
question which is agitating the country, and 
threatening to snap asunder the bonds of the 
Union, t ask again, wherein do the Know Noth- 
ings on this subject differ from the Black Repub- 
licans.' Can the Know Nothings, if they get 
into power, any more refuse to restore it than 
the Black Republicans? Both say it ought not to 
have been repealed. 

At a ratification meeting of the friends of Fill- 
more, just held in New Yorlc, at which several 
southern gentlemen, members of this House, 
were present, and addressed the people, Mr. 
Ketchum, one of the most influential of the per- 



sonal and political friends of Mr. Fillmore, spoke 
as follows:* 

If either gets into power, the Missouri restric- 
tion will, in my opinion, be restored. It cannot 
be otherwise; and I leave to others to penetrate 
the future, and tell us the consequences. Some 
of Mr. Fillmore's friends — the gentleman from 
Indiana, [Mr. Dunn,] for instance— say it shall 
be restored, and refuse to vote a dollar to carry 
on the Government until the refractory Senate 
and President yield their consent. Others of his 
friends desire its restoration, but seeing no pos- 
sibility of bringing the Senate to terms, are op- 
posed to agitating it during this Congress. The 
southern friends of Mr. Fillmore, who stand on 
this platform, admit that the Missouri conapro- 
mise was unjust and unconstitutional, and ought 
never to have been enacted, but seem to object to 
the repeal, because it " reopened sectional agita- 
tion." Does it never occur to such, that the 
surest possible mode which they could adopt to 
keep up and perpetuate that sectional agitation is 
to denounce the Kansas and Nebraska bill as a 
great wrong, and yet refuse to aid in its repeal.' 
Can they expect the agitation ever to cease so 
long as they continue to occupy that position? 
A bad law iTiay inflict on the country less injury 
than a long and angry agitation for its repeal; 
and if the Kansas and Nebraska bill were as bad 
as they represent it, they can never be justified 
in contributing to keep alive the strife which pre- 
vails in the country. But it is not a bad law. It 
was a great measure of justice and right. It was 
but the long deferred payment of a great debt due 
to the Constitution of the eountry. 

* " Since the speech was delivered, the House of Repre- 
sentatives, on motion of Mr. Dunn, of Indiana, who is at 
the head of the Fillmore electoral ticket of the State, has 
passed a bill restoring the Missouri compromise— -Mr. Ha- 
ven, of New York, the law partner and friend of Mr. Fill- 
more, voting for it." 

What was the Kansas and Nebraska bill, that it 
should be thus denounced ? The Missouri restric- 
tion had always been regarded, by many able 
statesmen of both sections, as a violation of the 



"As regards the question of slavery, Fillmore will sup- 
port the old compromises to which the faith of all sections 
of the country was pledged. If he had been in the pres- 
idential chair when the Kansas-Nebraska bill was passed, 
he would have vetoed it. And, genllciiien, why do the 
Republicans oppose him ? Simply because he is an honest 
man. [Cheers.] 

" Fillmore is censured because he signed the fugitive 
slave law; but he could not do otherwise, elected, as ha 
was, by the Whigs, whose principles *are opposed to the 
exercise of the veto power. He examined tlie lawfully. 
He may not have considered it the best law that crtuld have 
been made ; bnt it was his duty, as President and a Whig, 
to consider whether it was constitutional or not. He re- 
ferred it to the Attorney General, John J. Crittenden, to 
see if it was constitutional, and he declared that it was 
constitutional, and proved it in a very able and clear report. 
Ft was then referred to the Cabinet, and they unanimously 
decided it to be constitutional. Now, I ask the Republican 
party what Millard Fillmore could have done but sign the 
bill— advised by his Cabinet to do so — its constitutionality 
having been proved? I say, if he had not signed it, he 
would have deserved impeachment. [Loud cheers.] This 
is the only objection the Republican party dare to bring for- 
ward against Fillmore. The man who was born among us, 
who is bone of our bone, and come from the very loins of 
free labor, shall we give him up for Fremont? Shall wa 
make Fremont the standard bearer of freedom? [Voices. 
' No, no,' ' Black Republicans.' Then groans were given 
for Fremont. 1" 



/ 



12 



Constitution. The South had fnlt it as an odious 
badije of her iiittriority in thi' Union, and a slig- 
ma upon hor donK-stic institutions. Tliose at 
tlie Xorth, the whole of whose political princi- 
ples consisted of a niiili!::nant warfare upon the 
SQUtlit-rn .section, liad never roi;;'arded it in prac- 
tice, had repudiaii'd ;uid .spit upon it from the day 
of its adoption, down to 1851), and had never 
vahied it exce|)t as a stinsjing reproach to the I 
South, to be perpetuated in the statute-book, only 
for the ffraiifiealion of sectional mali£:nity. A, 
lar^e and patriotic party at theNorth, (the Dem-i 
ocratic party,) though believing: it to have been 
unconstitutional and unjust, yet, with theSouth, 
labored tor its enforcement whilst it was on the 
statute-book, and with us voted for its extension 
to our acquisitions from Mexico. Tiiey (the i 
•whole South and tiie Democratic party of the [ 
NortJi) failed in theirelforts, and it was repeatedly 
rejected and repudiated on direct votes in Con- 
gress. Even the Nashville convention, which 
was denounced asa treasonable conspiracy against 
the Union, demandid nothinff but the application 
of its princioies to the new Territories. | 

TIuis stood tiie Missouri compromise at the' 
commencement of the memorable session of Con- 
gress of 1850. The friends of the Union and the 
Constitution wished a settlement on the princi- 
ples of that compromise; the enemies of the 
Constitution, and contemners of a constitutional 
union of equal States, refused to accede to such a 
settlement. j 

During the session of 1850, the compromise 
mca.sures were passed. Many in the South op- 
posed that settlement on the allegation that their 
section was called on to yield everything, and to 
receive no substantial concession. Tlie whole 
South, as WQ all remember, was agitated on the 
subject. The present leader of the Know Nothing 
party, standing now on a platform denouncing the 
repeal of tlie Missouri compromise, contended 
then that the compromise measures repealed the 
odious Missouri compromise, and that that was a 
substantial concession to our section. One of my 
predecessors on this floor, having opposed the 
conii>romise of 1850, was denounced for it at 
home on that ground, by leading members of the 
present Know Nothing party of the district. 

At the next presidential election, in 1852, both 
the groat parties of the country agreed to make 
the compromise of 1H50 "a finality." At that 
election, General Pierce was chosen President, 
and came into office with a distinct pledge to re- 
gard tiiecomj.romise of 1850as "a finality, "and 
to carry out its jirovisions. During his term, in 
1854, it be<ain<; necessary to esiaMish territorial 
governments in Kansas and Nebraska. In the 
biliprovidi/ig tliose governments, it was declared, 
in section thirty-two, as follows: 

" Thai the (■..iistiiinion, and all the huvs of tlie tlnitej 
PtatifH whic-ii an- nm loeallv iiiaiiphialilc, .<liall have the 
•am.' foreeaiiil ellci within the ^iai<l'IVrrilllry iif Kansas as 
(Jlnewhcre wilhiii llie I'liiiud Slates. oxre|»l the eighth sec- 
Uoii 111 iliL- an preparaKiry to the a<hiii>.-i<>ii ol Missouri into- 
Ihe I.MK.ii. a|i(irov.Ml Mareh (J, IMO, whieh, hciiij,- incou- 
•bteiit wall III., priiieiplc o| non iniirventioii hy (Jongiess 
wUh -liiv.ry III ilic Stalls ami Terrilorie-i, as recognised 
by thr h-Ki-lation or If-.M), .•on.iiionly railed the eoniprouiisc 
Dicui-uren. i« liiT(h> dei-larcd iii.i|iiTative and void." ' 

It was not the Kansas and Nebraska bill that 
repealed iIjc Missouri compromise; it was re-/. 



pealed by the compromise of 1850, and the Kan- 
sas and Nebraska liill simply declared the fact 
that it had been repealed, and excepted it out 
of the clause of the bill extending the con!<titution 
and laws of the United States over the new Ter- 
ritories. Cimirress could not iiave extended the 
Missouri compromise over these Territories, con- 
sistently with the pledges all parties had given to 
abide by the compromise of 1850. The Kansas 
and Nebraska bill may have asserted a folsehood 
when it declared the ISlissouri compromise incon- 
sistent with the legislation of 18,")0.. But it is not 
competent for the present Know Nothing leaders 
to say so, for they told us the same thing in 1850, 
and in 1854 they advocated the bill which their 
present platform deiK)unces. More than that; 
whilst the bill was pending in 1854, they taunted 
a certain portion of the Democratic party of the 
South, and took great credit to themselves for 
having driven tliose impracticable Democrats — 
" secessionists," they called them — to acknowl- 
edge that the compromise of 1850 did repeal the 
Missouri compromise. If time permitted, I could 
present stnne specimens of oratory of this sort: 

It is a singular fact, Mr. Chairman, that whilst 
the Black Republicans who denounce the repeal 
of the Missouri compromise arc persons who 
had passed their whole lives in opposing, dm-iding, 
and spurning it, so almost all those who stand 
upon this Know Nothing platform now, denounc- 
ing the Kansas and Nebraska bill, are persons 
who advocated, and sucli of them as were in Con- 
gress voted for, that bill when it was pending in 
1854, every southern meml)er of the Senate but 
two, and every southern member of this House 
but nine, having voted for it. It found -no more 
able or zealous defender in either House than the 
distinguished Senator from my own State, [Mr. 
BADGtiR,] who distinctly declared that it was de- 
manded by the compromise of 1850. 

On the 2Gth of January, 1856, the honorable 
gentleman from Vermont [Mr. Meaciiam] sub- 
mitted to this House the following resolution: 

" Resnlrcil, 'I'hat, in the opinion of this House, the repeal 
of the Missouri eoinproinise of 1820, prohihilins slavepy 
north of latitude 36° 3'J', was an example of useless and 
factious a;;it:ition of the slavery question, unwise and un- 
just to tlie Amerieaii people." 

This resolution was passed by a vote of 108 to 
93, every Black llejnil)lican and every northern 
friend of Mr. Fillmore, excejil two, votingforit; 
and every Democrat, in the House, M'iih every 
southern friend of Mr. Fillmore, except one, 
voting against it. It seems from this vote that 
the souilarn Know Nothings ilien thought the 
repeal of the Missouri contpromise neither " un- 
wise," " unjust," nor " injurious. " Yet, in less 
tiian one month thereafter, the National Council 
denounces the D(Mnocratic Administration for the 
passage of the Kansas and Nebraska bill, and 
these same southern Know xN'othings are heard 
singing hosannas to the platform. 

The Kansas and Nebraska bill perpc-trated no 
wrong. If the repi>al of the Missouri compro- 
mise was a wrong, the wrong was perpetrated by 
the com|iromise of 1850, signed and ,ip[>roved by 
Mr. Fillmore, ami eoiistituting the mam ground 
on which his tVieiids claim for him the confidence 
and support of tin; South. It was no sectional 
measure; it was a tribute to tlie Constitution, a 



13 



pledge of peace, an offering to the great principle 
that the people are capable of self-government, 
and entitled to manage their own affairs in such 
manner as they deem best. But if it was a 
wrong, it was a wrong in favor of the South, and 
that section, at least, cannot complain of the in- 
jury. 

It IS further objected to the Kansas and Ne- 
braska bill, that it establishes over those Terri- 
tories what is called "squatter sovereignty." 
That phrase, in connection with the politics of 
the country, originated from the admission of 
California into the Union The people of that 
State, shortly after its acquisition t'rom Mexico, 
in advance of the establishment of any govern- 
ment by Congress, and without its authority or 
consent, assumed to organize a government for 
themselves, formed a constitution, and applied 
for admission into the Union. This unauthorized 
assumption of sovereign \iower by the squatters on 
the public land was denominated squatter soi^er- 
eignty. It is the only instance in our history in 
which such a thing has been done or attempted. 
The " squatter sovereignty" was recognized, and 
the State thus formed was admitted intp the 
Union by an act of Congress stg?ierf and approved 
by Mr. Fillmore. In the case of Kansas and Ne- 
braska, no such thing has been done or attempted, 
and, as in most of the other counts of their in- 
dictment, they charge against us what their can- 
didate has done. 

But it is said the bill allows the people resylent 
there to prohibit the introduction of slavery be- 
fore their admission into the Union. It contains 
no such feature. The thirty-second section de- 
clares its intent to be " to leave the people thereof 
perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic 
institutions in their own way, subject only to the 
Constitution of the United Slates.'^ If the Con- 
stitution allows them to prohibit slavery, then 
the bill permits it: if the Constitution does not 
allow them to prohibit slavery, then the bill does 
not permit it. The power of the people during 
the existence of their territorial government is 
a judicial question to be settled by the courts, if 
a case should ever arise involving the question ; 
and whatever Congress might have said in the 
bill it could not have altered the Constitution, 
nor taken tlie question out of the hands of the 
courts. Whatever may be the decision of the 
courts, I will be content; for I regard the great 
main feature of the bill as infinitely transcending 
in. importance any of the minor questions that 
can be raised under it. And i would rather trust 
the question to the people of the Territory than 
to such a Congress as we now have, and are 
liable to have at any time in the future. 

The next specification in the indictment is, that 
unnaturalized foreigners were allowed to vote at 
the first election in Kansas and Nebraska. 

I do not approve such a provision, and would 
not vote for it, unless compelled to take it in order 
to get what I regarded a good provision of greater 
importance. I certainly would not have voted 
against the Kansas and Nebraska bill on account 
of it. When the Kansas and Nebraska bill was 
introduced, it encountered the most violent oppo- 
sition from the|Free-Soilers and Abolitionists — the 
enemies of the compromise of 1850 — because it 
proposed to carry out the provisions of that com- 
promise. It was important, in order that a fair 



issue might be presented between those who were 
in favor of sustaining the compromise of 1850, on 
the one side, and those who wished to deny to 
the South the most important boon granted to it 
by that compromise on the other, that the bill 
should be made strictly conformable to precedents 
in all its other details. Otherwise, the friends of 
the compromise of 1850 might be divided about 
details having no bearing on the main issue. 

The bill for establishing a territorial govern- 
ment for Washington Territory had then but 
recently passed, and had become a law by thb 

APPROVAL AND SIGNATURE OF Mr. FiLLMORE. It 

was taken as the precedent on which to frame the 
measure. I place side by side, for comparison, 
the sections of the two bills, in regard to the quali- 
fications of voters: 
Kansas and Nebraska hill. jyashin^ton bill. 
"That every free vvliite "That every white male 
male inhabitant above the inhabitant above the age or 
age of twenty-one ycars,who twenty-one years, who shall 
shall be an actual resident of have been a resident of said 
said Territory, and shall pos- Territory at the time of the 
sess the qualifications here- passage of this act, and shall 
inafter prescribed, shall be possess the qualifications 
entitled to vote at the first liereiiiafter prescribed, shall 
election, and shall be eligible be entitled to vote at the first 
to any office within the said election, and shall be eligible 
Territory; but the qualifica- to any office within the said 
tions of voters, and of hold- Territory ; but the qualifica- 
ing olfice, at all subsequent tions of voters, and of hold- 
elections, shall be such as ing office, at all subsequent 
shall be prescribed by the elections, shall be such as 
Legislative Assembly : Pro- shall be prescribed by tha 
vided, That the right of suf- Legislative Assembly: Pro- 
frage and of holding office ruled, That the right of suf- 
shall be exercised only by frage and of holding office 
citizens of the United Slates, shall be exercised only by 
and those who shjvll have de- citizens of the United States 
clared, on oath, their inten- above the age of twenty-one 
tion to become such, and years, and those above that 
shall have taken an oath to age who shall have declared 
support the Constitution of on oatli their intention to be- 
the United States and the come such, and shall have 
provisions of this act.'"— taken an oath to support the 
StiUules at Large, vol. 10, Constitution of the United 
page 2So. States, and the provisions of 
this act." — Statutes atLarge, 
vol. 10, p., 174. 

Comment is unnecessary. 

But not content with letting unnaturalized for- 
eigners vote, for which there was some excuse, 
as they had voluntarily come to our country, and 
formally declared their intention to cast their lots 
among us, Mr. Fillmore approved and signed the 
bills for the admission of Utah and New Mexico, 
both of which contained the following: 

" Sec. 5. Every free white male inhabitant above the 
age of twenty- one years, who shall have been a resident 
of said Territory at the time of the passage of this act, shall 
be entitled to vote at the first election, and shall be ehgible 
to any office within the said Territory." ***** 
■'Provided, That the right of suffrage, and of holding office, 
shall be exercised only by citizens of the United States, 
including those recognized as citizens hy the treaty with the 
Republic of Mexico, concluded February 2, 1848." — Stat- 
wtes at Large, vol. 9, p. 454, Utah bill; vol. 9, p. 449, iVei» 
Mexico bill. 

Approved September 9, 1850. 

To show that we were under no treaty obliga- 
tion to permit them to vote, nor even allow them to 
become citizens, except when we thought proper, 
I give the article of the treaty with Mexico re- 
lating to the subject; 

" Mexicans ***** gi,aii be incorporated 
into the Union of the United States, and be admitted at 
the proper time, (to be judged of by the Congress of the 
United States,) to the enjoyment of all the rights of citizens 
of the United States, according to the principles of the 



14 



ConMilMtou.-'— Treaty with Mexico, Statutci at Large, vol. 
ft, p. 930. 

If it is so shocking to permit foreigners to vote 
who liave voluntiirily come to our country, and i 
filed their intention to make it the home of them- 1 
selves and their children, what is to be thought 
of Mr. Fillmore for permitting foreigners to vote i 
who had not come in voluntarily, but had been ] 
whipped in, conquered by our arms, and forced | 
into subjection to our laws ? I 

It may be as well to remark, that the first Legis- \ 
lature of Kansas, in prescribing the qualifications 
of voters, excluded all foreigners from voting 
who had not been naturalized. (Laws of Kansas, 
" Elections," section 11.) So that the ills so con- 
fidently predicted have !iot flowed from permitting 
them to vote at the first election. 

The next specification is on the " corruptions 
which pervade some of the departments of the 
Government. " Shades of Gardiner and Galphin ! 
Whither have you fled, that your deeds are so 
Boon forgotten ! ! If any one thing above all 
others signalized tlie administration of Mr. Fill- 
more, and distinguished it from all its predeces- 
sors and successor, it was " the corruptions 
which pervaded some of the departments;" not 
confined to subordinates and contractors, but 
reaching to the very highest oflicers under him 
intrusted with the management of affairs. 1 wish I 
had the figures and the facts illustrating Galphin- 
ism and Gardinerism; but I have not, and must 
pass them by. If it had been known that Mr. 
Fillmore would be the candidate, this count would 
certainly never have been placed in the indict- 
ment. For integrity, industry, and fidelity to 
the public interests, 1 believe this Administration 
may safely challenge a comparison with any of 
its predecessors, and I shall remain of that opin- 
ion until something more than a vague and unsup- 
ported charge can be shown against it. 

Mr. Chairman, on a full examination, I find 
little in this platform to approve, and nothing that 
the warmest Know Notliing — the most ardent 
crusader against foreigners and the Pope — must 
not admit to be of less importance than the defeat 
of the Black Republican candidate. I appeal to 
no section of the country, but to the friends of the 
Constitution and the Union everywhere, to lay 
aside — or at least to postpone for a time — bicker- 
ings on minor questions, and come up to the great 
work of maintaining the Constitution and the 
Union of (jur fathers. Bad men are assailing 
them; laborious men are sapping their founda- 
tions; and able men are striving to destroy the 
fraternal feeling, without which the Union would 
be a curse. Can we not unite to drive out the 
vermin that are tearing out the cement which 
binds together the massive blocks of the edifice ? 
If we cannot, then arc we unworthy the legacy 
our fathers gave us. 



If foreignism and Catholicism are evils, they 
are northern, not southern evils. We of the Soutn 
are notafllicted — if their presence is an affliction — 
with any considerable quantity of either. The 
great body of the Know Nothings north have 
refused to let their southern allies rid them of 
their evils, unless they are permitted in turn to 
rid us of what they regard as our peculiar evil — 
slavery. Failing to get the consent of their south- 
ern assoctates to any such i:eci])rocity of kind 
offici's, they have abandoned " the order," and 
joined with the Black Republicans in a war on 
the South. Let the southern Know Nothings 
in like manner cease their war upon the " pecu- 
liar institution" of the North, and uniting, for the 
time being at least, with the Democratic party, 
aid us to achieve a victory over sectionalism and 
fanaticism — aid us to maintain the Constitution 
and the Union — aid us to strike down the trea- 
sonable flag of Black Republicanism, with its 
sixteen stars, and bear aloft that old flag of thirty- 
one stars, whose increasing galaxy is emblematic 
of the increasing glories of the Republic. Let 
' them conquer themselves, and all the old preju- 
dices of party, and aid us to achieve the salvation 
of the Republic by the triumphant election of 
• BucHANAM and Breckinridge. 



APPENDIX. 
Extract from the speech of Hon. Samuel Ji. Smith, of Ten- 
nessee, delivered in the House of Rejnescniatives, ^ipril 4; 
185« 

" Now, wlio, I ask, were those who elected that gentle- 
man, [Mr. Banks .•■] I liave belbro me llie naiiies of seventy- 
live members, cleciedas Know Nolhin^s, who voted /or the 
gentleman t'rom Massachusetts (or Spualier. On tlie final 
ballot it will thus be seen thai, of those elected to this 
House by the Know Nothings, or Americans, s:eventy-tive 
voted for the gciitU;nian from Mussachust^tts [Mr. Banks] 
for Speaker; and that gentlemen may examine the classifi- 
cation 1 have made, and correct any error that may be in it. 
i give the names as follows : 

'• Know Nothings, or Americans, voting for Banks on tb« 
final ballot: 

"'Messrs. Albright, Allison, Ball, Barbour, Bennett of 
New York, Bingham, Bishop, Bradsliavv, Bulhiiton, Burlin- 
game, Campbell of Pennsylvania, Campbell of Ohio, Chaf 
Ice, Clark of Connecticut, Clavvson, Colfax, Coniins, t^o- 
vode, Oagin, (^umback, IJamrell, Davis of Massachusetts, 
Dean, De VViU, ])iek, Dodd, Durfee, Edie, Flagler, Gallo- 
way, Grow, Hall, Harlan, Holloway, Howard, King. Unapp. 
Knight, Knowlton, Knox, Kunkel,Ijeiter, Mace, .Nlatteson, 
' McCarly, Miller of New York, Morrill, Norton, Pearcc, 
I Pelton, Pennington, Perry, Pike, Purviance, Kitchie, Koli» 
bins, Roberts, Robison, Sage, Sapp, fSliern)an, Stantoi^ 
1 Stranahan, 'J'appan, Thorington, 'I'hnrston, 'I'odd, Traftom. 
I Tyson, VValbridge, Waldron, Watson, VVtlch, Wood, ani 
j VVoodrutr. 

'• 'J'o the first list must be added the name of Mr. Speaker 
Banks, who, it is well known, was the champion of <•< 
; Oirft'rin this House during the Thirty-Third Congress. The 
Speaker of this House, at his election, received the vote* 
1 of seventy-five members who were elected by the Know- 
Nolhings, and twenty eight who were elected by the Aboli- 
tionists, or Republicans, and did not receive the TOte of a 
single member of the Democratic party." 



iii 



